Are all Original Inhabitants of Assam "Indigenous"?

Guwahati, February 12, 2020:

At a time when the term ‘indigenous’ has become an integral part of Assam’s identity, Director of the Rights and Risks Analysis Group (RRAG), Suhas Chakma has opined that every original inhabitant of Assam cannot be called “indigenous.”

A meeting was organised to discuss regarding the socio-economic census of the indigenous Muslims residing in Assam. According to the RRAG, which had earlier conducted surveys for the Assam National Register of Citizens (NRC), the term ‘indigenous’ is meant to identify tribal people whose social, cultural and economic conditions distinguish them from other sections of the national community.

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“Under international law, tribal people, whose social, cultural and economic conditions distinguish them from other sections of the national community, and whose status is regulated wholly or partially by their own customs or traditions or by special laws or regulations are identified as indigenous people,” said Suhas Chakma.

He added that to call every original inhabitant group of an area “indigenous” was perversion of the term itself. “To term every original inhabitant group or Bhumiputras of an area as ‘indigenous’ is nothing but the perversion of the term indigenous peoples. By this logic, Englishmen would be indigenous people of England and Germans would be indigenous people of Germany," said Chakma.

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He added, "This is not what is the meaning and purpose of defining the indigenous peoples including under the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples as well as the ILO Conventions No.107 and No. 169 relating to indigenous and tribal peoples.”

The Director of the RRAG observed that if the term ‘indigenous’ was used for all the mainstream and non-tribal communities, all the protections reserved for the tribal people of the Northeastern region of India would gradually cease to exist.

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“If there is no difference between a tribal Bodo and mainstream Muslim or mainstream Assamese, there are serious legal implications for the genuine indigenous peoples of the region who are recognized as such under national and international law,” he said.

According to Suhas Chakma, the identification of mainstream and non-tribals as indigenous people would pose as a serious threat to the real indigenous peoples of the Northeast.

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